UIA chief, Mukiza accepts to return ‘service award’

The State Minister for Investment and Privatization,  Evelyn Anite has said the Director General of the Uganda Investment Authority (UIA), Robert Mukiza, has accepted to refund the shs82.6 million he received as part of the shs500 million ‘service award’ shared among UIA staff.

“Fellow citizens, thank you very much for all your support to me in the fight against corruption. The good news is that the DG, Robert Mukiza has accepted to refund the money he and team received from the infrastructure loan, which Ugandan taxpayers will have to pay back with interest,” Anite posted on X on Saturday.

Mukiza and UIA staff have been put on the spot for sharing among themselves shs500 million in  honorary payment off the loan funded Kampala Industrial Park Development Project.

In a June, 12 letter to the UIA board chairperson, Morison Rwakakamba, the Investment Minister, Evelyn Anite said the sharing of the money was despicable.

“I find the above despicable, uncouth, barbaric and uncultured that people who have been tasked with the responsibility of delivering such a project within 5 years not only have they underperformed but also they are busy chest thumping and dishing to themselves huge sums of the project loan,” Anite said.

“All these tantamount to mischarge, abuse and corruption at the expense of taxpayers of Uganda. This is not in line with the vision of H.E the President of Republic Uganda, General Yoweri Kaguta Museveni of industrializing Uganda for job creation, wealth creation and social economic transformation.”

Mukiza explains self

Earlier, in a letter to UIA board chairperson, Mukiza defended the shs500 ‘service award’ to UIA staff.

He explained that after the termination of the owner’s engineer (OE) on August 29, 2022, additional responsibilities were assigned to the project management  team assisted by some UIA staff to bridge the gap in the supervision of the infrastructure development at KIBP.

According to Mukiza, the project manager made a proposal to the UIA board which sat and approved the remuneration of staff for the additional responsibilities, adding that the project management team staff were later assigned roles and responsibilities to supervise the project in the absence of the engineer.